Close Encounter: Venus - Jupiter - Moon

Soon after sunset on Monday 1 December 2008, the world will be treated
to a grand spectacle in the western sky. The brightest planet in the
sky, Venus, will have a close encounter with the second brightest
planet, Jupiter, as viewed from Earth. The two planets will appear
just 2.0° apart at their closest at 9h UT on 1 December. Joining in on
the tight Venus-Jupiter formation will be the young crescent Moon, which together with its
Earthshine, will produce a wonderful celestial display that will be
visible all around the world. Unfortunality the sky wasn't clear for
me. But today 2 December the view of the Venus-Jupiter formation could
still bee seen. Lucky the sky was partly clear here in Amsterdam. The
apparent relative positions of Venus, Jupiter and the Moon will vary
somewhat depending upon where people view the event on the Earth.
Jupiter and Venus look like they have been drawing closer together
over the past month. But in three dimensions the planets are actually
separated by nearly 500 million miles (805 million kilometers).Of the eight official planets in the solar system, five are visible at
night without the aid of a telescope or binoculars. Jupiter and Venus
are particularly bright, partly because both have highly reflective
clouds that completely envelop them, but also because Venus is Earth's
closest neighbor while Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar
system.

Photo taken on 2nd of December 2008 at 17:31 in Amsterdam, using my
camera's maximum 18 x optical zoom or 648mm, ISO 200 and 1/60s (no
tripod used - spot metering). Easy to locate just after sunset in the
southwestern sky.